Despite a 2017 Fast and Furious 8 release date, the American film studio - Universal Pictures' next installment in the Fast and Furious franchise is missing one crucial element - they're still looking for someone to helm the film.
As stated by The Hollywood Reporter, director James Wan of Furious 7 supposedly ditched the eighth installment of Fast and Furious, and jump over to his Conjuring horror series.
Director James Wan reportedly finds the demands of filming Furious too much for his health thus he was reluctant to go back to the franchise.
Reports even claim that the famous director James Wan, who also helmed the horror film Saw and created Billy the Puppet, was approached with a "life-changing" paycheck just to come back after Justin Lin (director of Fast and Furious films three through six) also declined the possibility to return to the franchise.
Universal Pictures also supposedly got in trouble with the recent exit of studio co-president of production Jeffrey Kirschenbaum, who allegedly oversaw the Fast and Furious series, and got on a prickly matter with star-producer Vin Diesel.
The spokesperson of the lead star of Fast and Furious - Vin Diesel refuted any allegations that the actor is tough to work with, referring to all those talk as "complete nonsense." This was as well supported by James Wan's spokeperson who likewise denied that there was statemen any friction between Vin and the director.
In addition, Furious producer Neal Moritz said, "Obviously, if there was any issue, we wouldn't be making the eighth film of Fast and Furious with Vin Diesel right now."
In a follow up statement, a spokesperson of Universal said, "the studio and filmmakers loved working with director James Wan in Furious 7, but he was never on the edge of an eighth film due to a scheduling conflict with the American horror film The Conjuring 2. We are occupied on casting and searching for the right director for the next chapter of the Fast and Furious franchise - Fast 8."
